Let me tell you a story: Back in the 1980s there was a brand war, and it was a big deal at the time. Named the Cola Wars, it was a knock-down, drag-out fight to decide which of the two mega brands of cola was better, Coke or Pepsi. Both felt that neither could survive while the other lived, and you, the consumer, had to choose. Which did you like better? Side-by-side blind taste tests were done in supermarkets, on beaches, Main Streets and college campuses. It was the Duke-Carolina and the Yankees-Red Sox of marketing wars rolled into one. It was huge.

Then in 1985, in a moment no consumer could figure out (and no major company should ignore), Coca-Cola decided they would ditch their cash cow and make an entirely different product. The venerable “Old Coke” was gone overnight and “New Coke” was the Coke to beat Pepsi. There was just one problem. Nobody liked it.

There were practically riots in the streets. People started hoarding “old” Coke when they could find it. If you weren’t around then (and I suspect most of the Google decision-makers weren’t) I know it’s hard to believe that consumers actually rose up and made such a stink that a mega company completely reversed course about something, but they did. In a matter of a few months, New Coke was gone and “Coke Classic” was resuscitated.

“Now we know Google’s master-plan for integrating Google+ ever more deeply into the Google ecosystem: Pour the whole thing into Google search. Starting today, Google+ members, and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google, will be able to search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph. That’s right; Google+ circles, photos, posts and more will be integrated into search in ways other social platforms can only dream about.”

Short version: when you type a search into Google, what you’re going to get for your first results are everything you or your friends have ever written or shared publicly on Google Plus on anything related to the item you’ve just searched.

If you’re on your mobile device looking for a restaurant in San Francisco, you’re treated to a gold mine of your friends’ and acquaintances’ recommendations. Nice!

But if you’re a professional 9-5 researcher like me using Google, it’s another layer of non-relevant stuff to wade through before you get to what you need. We’re not “social” searchers — we use these tools to provide reliable answers to others. Relevant search is our job. And Google has always had the largest database of legitimate, relevant resources that professional researchers need and use every day.

THE EXPERTS WEIGH IN

In a Search Engine Land post, Danny Sullivan argues that besides making relevant search results harder to find for professional searchers, the potential trouble on Google’s horizon is legal: if they highlight information (mainly) from their own properties – including Google+ and YouTube they could be charged with abusing their power as a monopoly. Also, there’s that teeny little issue of privacy – what if something you thought you were posting privately to Google+ got shared without your permission publicly and then emerged as an answer to a search query?

Ranking of pages to determine their relevance, in the main body of search results;

The placement of those results on the screen, and the amount of screen real estate alloted to each result;

The right hand “recommendations” sidebar, where Google advertisements — not just the old text ads, but big graphics that follow you as you scroll down the page — have been joined, and in many cases replaced, by links and photos of “People and Pages on Google+.”

Effectively, Google has bought itself a huge amount of prime advertising space on its most popular platform for the product it most desperately needs to succeed.

FIXING WHAT’S NOW BROKEN

I’ve seen comments saying “what’s the big deal, you can turn Search Plus off!” and yes you can, and here’s how.

And you can also turn Verbatim on, which forces Google to allow you to use your exact search terms instead of Google trying to correct them for you (in case you didn’t really mean what you meant). Here’s how: Do a search, go to the search options sidebar, click “show more search tools,” select “Verbatim” and Google will keep your search string like you wanted it to be.

And you can turn filtering off, too, so that your world on Google doesn’t keep getting narrower and narrower. And yes, it does. You don’t even know what you don’t know, but you will if you read this and watch Eli Pariser’s jaw-dropping TED talk.

But all these turning offs and turning ons are a total hassle. Just to do one search in Google the way I used to just last year, I have to turn off two things and turn one on. Every. Single. Time. This is progress?

I’ve read other comments saying, “Google’s free and they can do whatever they want to with their product.” And that’s true, they can. I’d argue that Google is “free,” but whatever. We can vote with our feet. And Bing’s the next logical choice for database size.

Trouble is, Microsoft has always run hot and cold on search. They kindasorta want to compete with Google, but Bing’s not their core business and it’s never going to be. There’s no Coke vs. Pepsi thing going on here. It’s Coke vs. Shasta. Google’s still got the largest database lurking inside all that growing social stuff, and Bing just doesn’t. It’s big, but it’s not Google big.

So will Google create two products – one for professional searchers and one for social searchers? Or, in the words of the immortal SNL writers, is it just to be “No Coke! Pepsi!” for us?

Helen Brown is the founder of The Helen Brown Group, a firm that helps non-profits with their donor research. She blogs at The Intelligent Edge. Follow Helen at @AskHelenBrown. The Helen Brown Group is a client of Schaefer Marketing Solutions.

Advertising Age just published its Book of Ten’s issue. In it they chronicle this year’s Top 10 Social Media Blunders. The list is entertaining and disheartening. Entertaining because of the shenanigans and plain idiotic social media mistakes committed by some very smart people. Disheartening because nervous businesses considering social media may unduly focus on the blunders and ignore the benefits.

Today, I’ll take a moment to speculate “why” the blunders happened and how businesses can learn from their less fortunate brethren’s mistakes.

Dropping the “F” Bomb

The Blunder: New Media Strategies employee mistakenly skewers Detroit drivers from the @ChryslerAutos twitter account. Although the tweet was caught and deleted within minutes, the damage to a career and a high-prestige social media account was done. New Media Strategies fired the employee and Chrysler Fired New Media Strategies.

Why It Happened: The scuttlebutt is that this employee managed his personal and client accounts with the same Twitter management tool. A small lapse in attention easily took his personal tweet and broadcasted it to the world.

Suggestion:

Set a firm policy that personal tweeting should not happen from a company sponsored and administered tool like Hootsuite. Since a mis-tweet could be dire, companies should also consider restricting tweeting from company computers.

Kenneth Cole and the Arab Spring

The Blunder: Kenneth Cole jumped on the Arab Spring news story with a less than elegant tweet:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo, Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online”

Why It Happened: Creativity got in the way of common sense. Politics, religion, and um… revolution are incendiary topic that should be handled with care.

Suggestion:

The same conversation rules that work at the bar and family dinners should be applied here. Provocative advertising can get you attention but ultimately it can backfire. Since the risk is often disproportionate to the benefit, it’s better to dig a little deeper for a social play that has more legs and less risk.

Qantas and #QantasLuxury

The Blunder: Bad luck and horrible timing led to the launch of Twitter Contest that asked followers to detail their dream luxury in flight experience. The problem was that the day before union talks had broken down and customers were still upset about a fleet shutdown that disrupted travel plans for thousands.

Why It Happened:
Operations, Customer Service, Marketing, and Social Media weren’t talking. A open-eyed review of social sentiment and actual conversations would have given the social team a heads-up that they were poking a hornet’s nest.

Suggestion:

Invest in a social media monitoring tool that gives real-time and accurate reports on what your community is saying about your brand. Any major social initiative should have a go, no-go, checkoff that polls customer service and operation.

A Face Full of Tomato Sauce

The Blunder: The folks at Ragu stepped in it when they tried to joke about dads lack of kitchen expertise. Ragu’s mistake was creating a video with moms spouting off about their kitchen-illiterate husbands. Not-funny and the Dads blogged en-masse about Ragu’s faux-pas.

Why It Happened: The problem is that Ragu missed a growing movement of dads who are kitchen, diaper, laundry, and bed-time story ninjas. The social web is packed with these interest and lifestyle based interest groups. A simple search would have uncovered the CC Chapman’s of the world and averted the PR misstep.

Suggestion:
Use social networks to monitor the pulse of your customers. A simple poll on Facebook can offer clues to how a marketing campaign, new product launch or price change could be perceived. Which leads to…

Netflix and Qwikster

The Blunder: Netflix decided to raise its prices without talking to their customers first. Next they confused everyone by spinning off their DVD rental into another brand, Qwikster, but failed to secure the Twitter username @Qwikster. The Twitter handle was scooped up by a loser who had a talent for bashing Netflix. The cost of this particular blunder was 800,000 lost subscribers or $192 million in $20/month subscriber fees.

Why It Happened:
Netflix is a savvy online player. On this one they forgot that they had an open channel to poll their most fanatic subscribers. Simply asking them how they would react to the changes would have revealed the gaping holes in their strategy. Ignoring these people created a firestorm that couldn’t be contained.

Suggestion:
Remember that “dialogue” is a competitive weapon. Facebook, Twitter are free to use and incredibly valuable for gathering opinons and soliciting support for company initiatives. It’s a good idea to add “social focus groups” to the traditional customer research done before the roll-out of any new product or service.

5 More Examples

Advertising Age did a terrific job at compiling and profiling these blunders. Read 5 more here.

I’m curious about your perspective on what went wrong with Quantas, Ragu, Netflix, Kenneth Cole, and New Media Strategies. Talk to me in the comments below.

Contributing Columnist Stanford Smith obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social, except when he’s chasing large mouth bass!

Note: If you’re just stumbling on to this post, both bills have been withdrawn at this time but keep reading. The points are still valid. An excellent wrap up of the issue is contained in this New York Times piece: It’s time to put down the pitchforks on SOPA.

The current controversy over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as U.S. House Bill 3261, is highly disturbing on several levels, and the actual bill might be the least of our worries, in the long-term.

I am against piracy, but I’m also against this bill. The proposal is so out of touch with reality that it is embarassing. It looks like the opposition is gaining momentum, so that is a relief.

But here is something that is just as disturbing to me. Many people I know became “Stop SOPA” lemmings.

Follow the leader?

Legend has it that a lemming is a little rodent that blindly and unquestioningly follows their leader, even when they follow them over a cliff to their death (they don’t actually do this but that is another story).

I questioned three well-known social media leaders about why they were supporting SOPA and actively encouraging their followers to attach a “Stop SOPA” badge to their profiles. Here is a summary of their responses:

“I’m not what you would call an expert on this. I haven’t even read the bill. I’m trusting what I read from others.”

“To be honest, I don’t know what is in the bill. But based on how people are reacting it must be bad.”

“I have not read the bill and I do not intend to read the bill. What is in the bill is irrelevant. They are taking away our rights.”

You see, on the social web, “Stop SOPA” is not a political issue, for many. “Stop SOPA” has become a meme. This movement was passed from person to person without much independent thought or an educated response. It has become the Keyboard Cat of political statements.

I fully appreciate the importance of “social proof” on the Internet. In the absence of direction, we may look to trusted others for an idea of what to do. But come on folks. This proposed legislation directly affects the very heart of our lives and our livelihoods. There is no excuse in encouraging action from your trusting followers without doing a little homework.

But what about the problem?

The third level of concern this proposed legislation created was the fact that everybody seems to be against SOPA but there has been little intelligent dialogue about the actual issue of stopping piracy. And stealing is “our right” is not a viable answer in my book. Please, take a strong stand … but also help provide some answers.

Here is the problem in a nutshell. I just spent nearly a year of my life writing a book. If there is no hope of getting paid for the difficult work and sacrifice that goes into creating content like this in the future, I will never write another book. And so on.

When you steal content, you’re not beating a greedy corporation. You’re not sticking it to “the man.” You’re sticking it to me, and millions of other writers, filmmakers, musicians, software developers, and other hard-working content creators.

Some claim that alternative monetization models will emerge to allow people to continue to create and prosper in spite of what seems like unstoppable piracy. But we have been stealing legally-protected content for 20 years now. If an easy monetization alternative were available, wouldn’t it have emerged by now? It hasn’t, and it won’t. And yes, I’ve read the book Free by Chris Anderson and still believe there is probably no answer to widespread content theft other than some sort of legislation. We need to come to terms with that fact and be part of the solution.

OK, that is enough of the rant. This time it was SOPA. But the next time we “go lemming,” will it be something even more important? And at what cost? I was really disturbed by the herd mentality I witnessed. What about you?

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